City-maintained roads need $3.8M in repairs

Published: Thursday, October 3, 2013 at 11:01 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, October 3, 2013 at 11:01 p.m.

Hendersonville City Council Thursday night put a final stamp of approval on new water and sewer impact fees and agreed to spend $77,754 to repair a bridge damaged by this year’s heavy rains. Needed road repairs, however, will cost the city nearly 50 times that much over the next several years.

Public Works Director Tom Wooten asked the council to cover the bill to repair the West Allen Street bridge from the city’s fund balance. He said they plan to use state-allocated Powell Bill funds to repair roads flagged in a study of the city’s pavement conditions.

Wooten informed the board that the city maintains 67.9 miles of roads, and 47.16 of those miles (69.4 percent) were recommended for maintenance or resurfacing in the report. The total work is estimated to cost more than $3.88 million in today’s prices, which have continued to rise since 2003.

Certain asphalt materials cost nearly three times what they did a decade ago, he said, and the city has repaved so much that “we’re running out of curb,” requiring workers to mill the roads to meet the curb lines. “Powell Bill funds are not increasing enough to keep up with the cost of maintaining the streets," he said.

Consulting engineers with the Piedmont-based U.S. Infrastructure of Carolina Inc. led the study, which revealed more than 40 percent of the city’s roadways were found to be in poor or very poor condition. Thirty-eight percent of Hendersonville’s lanes were noted to be in very good or good shape, and 21.3 percent were labeled “fair.”

Wooten said a little more than $1 million will be needed to patch 41,587 square yards of rutted roadways.

The study found that Hendersonville currently needs $1,131,549 for routine maintenance and $2,754,929 for resurfacing.

Since roads start to rapidly deteriorate after about 18 years, consultants suggested the city should be on a 15-year paving cycle, resurfacing 4.5 miles of roads a year at an annual cost of approximately $692,200, he said. “We’re doing about half of that mileage on an annual basis” today.

Nearly seven miles of the city’s streets are in need of crack sealing – a stopgap measure which topped the study’s list of high priorities. Hendersonville’s overall pavement conditions were rated lower than the cities of Brevard, Waynesville and Southern Pines.

“USI recommends that Hendersonville should continue to dedicate its maintenance funding toward preventative maintenance practices and structural repair,” Wooten said in a PowerPoint presentation. “This practice will reduce the maintenance cost per mile in future years.”

In the past year, the city has resurfaced 2.4 miles and completed 3.6 miles of crack sealing on streets in good condition and 16,000-square-feet of full-depth patching to ward off further deterioration.

“We plan, going forward, to try to continue to do this to prolong the life of our streets,” Wooten said.

The U.S. Infrastructure survey was completed in April.

Bridge work

In a memo to City Council, Wooten noted that a bridge “on West Allen Street next to Four Seasons Rotary Park was damaged during our recent heavy rains. The rapid flow of water along with debris in the creek has caused significant erosion under the right wing wall, causing the wing wall to settle and crack next to the bridge structure. This wall will have to be removed and rebuilt.”

The Public Works Department recommended Brushy Mountain Builders be awarded the repair contract since they were the project’s low bidder.

City Council approved a new rate schedule for water and sewer system development charges that will raise the connection bills of new residential and small business customers. But amendments to the schedule will give new customers up to three years to pay the fees and existing homeowners a 50 percent discount for the price to connect.

New homeowners will have to pay more than double what they currently have to pay to connect to the city’s water system, and at least $200 more than what they pay to hook on to the city’s sewer.

“Typically when somebody has to go on city water or city sewer it’s because they’re being forced to,” Councilman Steve Caraker said in his pitch to lower current residential bills by 50 percent.

Small-business owners, who paid the lowest price of $333 for water and $648 for sewer in system development charges over the past year, will now have to pay a base rate of $1,430 for water and $1,280 for sewer.

Big businesses will see a break in fees. Instead of paying a base rate of $82,444 to tap on to the city's water and sewer in current rates with a 2-inch meter, they would pay $14,250 under the new option.

Councilman Ron Stephens lobbied for all customers to have at least three years to pay the fees. A representative of the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce supported Stephens’ suggestion, adding that the first three years of a start-up can bear the heaviest financial burdens on a new business.

In other action, City Council:

- Agreed to fund the first-year costs of having a student resource officer at Hendersonville Middle School while the city continues talks with the county school district to take over funding Hendersonville High School’s current officer, who is funded in whole by the city. The district funds 78 percent of the costs to staff officers at the other county high schools. The city was not awarded a grant to help with the funding.

- Adopted an ordinance to repeal and replace a part of the city’s zoning laws as required by the N.C. General Assembly’s new House Bill 276.

- Adopted an ordinance to amend the city’s mixed-use zoning law regarding the alternative design committee, employed to hear cases of developers who wish to pursue projects out of the scope of current zoning laws. The mayor was given authority to choose the ad-hoc committee members when the need arises for them to meet.

<p>Hendersonville City Council Thursday night put a final stamp of approval on new water and sewer impact fees and agreed to spend $77,754 to repair a bridge damaged by this year's heavy rains. Needed road repairs, however, will cost the city nearly 50 times that much over the next several years.</p><p>Public Works Director Tom Wooten asked the council to cover the bill to repair the West Allen Street bridge from the city's fund balance. He said they plan to use state-allocated Powell Bill funds to repair roads flagged in a study of the city's pavement conditions.</p><p>Wooten informed the board that the city maintains 67.9 miles of roads, and 47.16 of those miles (69.4 percent) were recommended for maintenance or resurfacing in the report. The total work is estimated to cost more than $3.88 million in today's prices, which have continued to rise since 2003.</p><p>Certain asphalt materials cost nearly three times what they did a decade ago, he said, and the city has repaved so much that “we're running out of curb,” requiring workers to mill the roads to meet the curb lines. “Powell Bill funds are not increasing enough to keep up with the cost of maintaining the streets," he said.</p><p>Consulting engineers with the Piedmont-based U.S. Infrastructure of Carolina Inc. led the study, which revealed more than 40 percent of the city's roadways were found to be in poor or very poor condition. Thirty-eight percent of Hendersonville's lanes were noted to be in very good or good shape, and 21.3 percent were labeled “fair.”</p><p>Wooten said a little more than $1 million will be needed to patch 41,587 square yards of rutted roadways.</p><p>The study found that Hendersonville currently needs $1,131,549 for routine maintenance and $2,754,929 for resurfacing.</p><p>Since roads start to rapidly deteriorate after about 18 years, consultants suggested the city should be on a 15-year paving cycle, resurfacing 4.5 miles of roads a year at an annual cost of approximately $692,200, he said. “We're doing about half of that mileage on an annual basis” today.</p><p>Nearly seven miles of the city's streets are in need of crack sealing – a stopgap measure which topped the study's list of high priorities. Hendersonville's overall pavement conditions were rated lower than the cities of Brevard, Waynesville and Southern Pines.</p><p>“USI recommends that Hendersonville should continue to dedicate its maintenance funding toward preventative maintenance practices and structural repair,” Wooten said in a PowerPoint presentation. “This practice will reduce the maintenance cost per mile in future years.”</p><p>In the past year, the city has resurfaced 2.4 miles and completed 3.6 miles of crack sealing on streets in good condition and 16,000-square-feet of full-depth patching to ward off further deterioration.</p><p>“We plan, going forward, to try to continue to do this to prolong the life of our streets,” Wooten said.</p><p>The U.S. Infrastructure survey was completed in April.</p><p> </p><p>Bridge work</p><p>In a memo to City Council, Wooten noted that a bridge “on West Allen Street next to Four Seasons Rotary Park was damaged during our recent heavy rains. The rapid flow of water along with debris in the creek has caused significant erosion under the right wing wall, causing the wing wall to settle and crack next to the bridge structure. This wall will have to be removed and rebuilt.”</p><p>The Public Works Department recommended Brushy Mountain Builders be awarded the repair contract since they were the project's low bidder.</p><p>Mayor pro-tem Jeff Collis motioned to award the contract to Brushy Mountain. It passed with unanimous support.</p><p>Impact fees</p><p>City Council approved a new rate schedule for water and sewer system development charges that will raise the connection bills of new residential and small business customers. But amendments to the schedule will give new customers up to three years to pay the fees and existing homeowners a 50 percent discount for the price to connect.</p><p>New homeowners will have to pay more than double what they currently have to pay to connect to the city's water system, and at least $200 more than what they pay to hook on to the city's sewer.</p><p>“Typically when somebody has to go on city water or city sewer it's because they're being forced to,” Councilman Steve Caraker said in his pitch to lower current residential bills by 50 percent.</p><p>Small-business owners, who paid the lowest price of $333 for water and $648 for sewer in system development charges over the past year, will now have to pay a base rate of $1,430 for water and $1,280 for sewer.</p><p>Big businesses will see a break in fees. Instead of paying a base rate of $82,444 to tap on to the city's water and sewer in current rates with a 2-inch meter, they would pay $14,250 under the new option.</p><p>Councilman Ron Stephens lobbied for all customers to have at least three years to pay the fees. A representative of the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce supported Stephens' suggestion, adding that the first three years of a start-up can bear the heaviest financial burdens on a new business.</p><p>In other action, City Council:</p><p>- Agreed to fund the first-year costs of having a student resource officer at Hendersonville Middle School while the city continues talks with the county school district to take over funding Hendersonville High School's current officer, who is funded in whole by the city. The district funds 78 percent of the costs to staff officers at the other county high schools. The city was not awarded a grant to help with the funding.</p><p>- Adopted an ordinance to repeal and replace a part of the city's zoning laws as required by the N.C. General Assembly's new House Bill 276.</p><p>- Adopted an ordinance to amend the city's mixed-use zoning law regarding the alternative design committee, employed to hear cases of developers who wish to pursue projects out of the scope of current zoning laws. The mayor was given authority to choose the ad-hoc committee members when the need arises for them to meet.</p><p>Reach Weaver at Emily.weaver@blueridgenow.com or 828-694-7867.</p>